Mamdani didn’t invite us to meeting with rabbis, NY Board of Rabbis, Rabbinic Council of America say

The board represents more than 750 rabbis across religious denominations in the New York area.

The mayor’s office told reporters on Monday afternoon that the closed press meeting was slated for 3:45 p.m.

Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, and Rabbi David Niederman, executive director of United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, at Gracie Mansion in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month on May 18, 2026. Credit: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office.

“I don’t know who he went through,” a board representative told JNS, of the mayor, who has drawn widespread criticism from New York rabbis and Jewish organizations for his criticism of Israel and response to Jew-hatred in the city.

“He didn’t go through us,” the New York Board of Rabbis told JNS. “We had nothing to do with it.”

Rabbi Etan Tokayer, president of the Rabbinic Council of America, told JNS that he too had not received an invitation.

“Absent any context, I cannot say whether I would attend had I been invited,” he said.

Tokayer told JNS that he wrote a letter several months ago to the mayor’s Jewish liaison after it was reported that Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, had made “venomous antisemitic comments,” in the past.

“It was a strong but thoughtfully balanced note,” he told JNS. “I received no reply.”